Daisy Garcia Montoya is joining the staff at Northeast News as our Editorial Assistant, and she’ll be with us through the end of July. Many of you may recognize Garcia Montoya; she grew up in the North Blue Ridge neighborhood, just east of I-435 and 24 Highway, and she attends Holy Cross Parish. She graduated from Lincoln Prep in 2017, and she’s currently enrolled at UMKC where she is majoring in communications and political science with a minor in international studies. She also worked at Mattie Rhodes Center.

Daisy spends a lot of time at the parks in Northeast. “All my friends live near Holy Cross, so my friends played volleyball with my parents at the tennis courts at Budd Park,” and adds that she also plays sand volleyball at a park in Grandview.

“We also used to go to the Concourse a lot when I was younger. I remember running around in the fountains. I really liked going to the festival.”

“I got to know Northeast really well while I worked at Mattie Rhodes,” Garcia Montoya said, “Especially the children living here. Many of the kids at Mattie Rhodes speak Swahili, so I started to pick up some of the words in their language, and I also taught them some Spanish,”

We’re happy to have another member from our community on staff, and we look forward to working with her this summer. Ask her how to say “Hello” is Swahili if you see her out and about in the community.